Revelations
by Angelic Temptress
Summary: Batman (from "A Better World") ponders in his cave when someone visits. Even superheroes make mistakes...


Revelations By: Jade O'Neal  
  
Disclaimer: I obviously don't own them. Notes: Takes place just after "A Better World." Rating: Pg-13 Spoilers: Eh...none really. Description: The other Batman (the dysfunctional-universe one) ponders in his cave when someone visits. (Even though this person isn't even mentioned.) It gives us a bit more insight into this character, well, from my point of view. Personally, I think he had more of a conscience than the other Justice Lords did...  
  
Please visit my fan fiction site if you like this. I write both JL and ANGEL stuff...  
  
^^^  
  
He sat there, staring at his enormous computer. They had done so much damage in the past two years, and it had taken another version of himself to make him realize what they had really done.  
  
They were killers. Nothing could justify that. Nothing ever would.  
  
The Justice Lords had to fix what they had done. Sure, they had gotten rid of all the crime, but they had silenced free speech as well. There were no freedoms anymore.  
  
Reporters couldn't do their jobs students couldn't protest, and voters couldn't vote.  
  
It was nothing more than a dictatorship. Why hadn't he seen it earlier?  
  
Batman had been blinded by his own thirst for vengeance, his own thirst for national security, and Superman's thirst for power.  
  
He wondered if any of the others had thought like this before, if they had experienced any real hesitations. Or was he the only one who saw this? Was he alone?  
  
"You know, I was the only one you protected from your own wrath," her beautiful voice said from the darkness of his cave.  
  
He hadn't seen her in a long while and had figured that he never would after their little episode a year earlier.  
  
"What are you doing here?" he asked bitterly without glancing in the direction her voice had come from.  
  
She slightly chuckled and answered, "I just wanted to see you."  
  
He wanted to believe her, but he knew she had come for another reason.  
  
"I saw what happened in Arkham today. I was there, watching from the shadows. Do you remember when you used to do that?"  
  
He didn't reply.  
  
"Was he anything like you had been, Bruce? Before that power-hungry Superman and the others had clouded your already dark mind?"  
  
Still, he didn't speak.  
  
She stepped out of the darkness and walked to him. He didn't look at her.  
  
"He's not a monster like you, is he? He still has a soul."  
  
"Did you just come to rub it in my face?"  
  
"Why? Do you need me to?" she questioned.  
  
"No."  
  
Her hand carefully reached to touch him, but he grabbed her slender wrist before she could.  
  
"What are you doing?" Batman asked and finally made eye contact with her.  
  
Her watery, green eyes stared at him with such fright, and it surprised him. He had never seen her so afraid. She had never been frightened of anything.  
  
"I wanted to see if you still had a pulse." When he loosened his hold on her arm, she ripped away from his grasp.  
  
"So, you decided that it would be okay to hold them all hostage while the others tried to control a world that wasn't theirs to save?" Selina asked him without looking away from his cold eyes. "I mean, you even hospitalized that poor Hawkgirl at Arkham. Were you willing to kill her as well?"  
  
"No. We didn't want any of them to die."  
  
"Did your friends feel the same way? I bet Superman would've killed her if he could have."  
  
"I think you need to shut up."  
  
"And I think you need to listen to someone, Bruce," she stated firmly. "You got rid of Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin, and they were voices of reason. Now they all hate you. Was this better world worth the sacrifice of their friendships?"  
  
"What do you care? You're nothing but a common criminal."  
  
"A criminal that you saved. You didn't turn me into one of those zombies that you store at the asylum. You wouldn't let them touch me. You couldn't let them touch me because you would hate yourself."  
  
His eyes narrowed. "I already hate myself."  
  
"Than stop it. Give the people their freedom. This was a democracy before you all destroyed it."  
  
Batman laughed this time. "Like you respected that democracy. You were a thief who followed her own rules."  
  
"At least I had that choice. Now I don't even have one. Look at Metropolis. Lois Lane can't even publish her work anymore. You all are censoring the television and the newspapers. People can't express their opinions.  
  
"Look at Gotham. People are being arrested for disagreeing with bad checks. Everyone is afraid of you... I'm even afraid of you, and we were once lovers."  
  
Selina Kyle exhaled loudly and crossed her arms over her chest. Her blonde hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore a simple pair of slacks and a turtleneck. Batman had forgotten how wonderful she was and how badly he still loved her.  
  
"What do you expect me to do, Selina?"  
  
"Lighten up a little. Start at the beginning and slowly adjust. Be human. Give a damn. Just try to love again." Tears finally slipped down her face, and she looked away from him.  
  
It hadn't been that long ago when he had taken her home from the streets of Gotham and to his cave. They had made love, and he hadn't turned her over to the police. He had gone against everything that he had believed in to protect her.  
  
To protect her from the justice system they had created.  
  
Selina had been his everything back then. She may have been Catwoman, but that hadn't mattered. He just wanted her to be his.  
  
"Are you happy now, Bruce?" she asked. "Did this help you cope with your parents' deaths? Did it help to know that no person would ever feel the way you did? Personally, I'd rather feel sorrow and despair than nothing at all." She turned away from him and headed for the stairs. "In this world you made, a person is forbidden to feel."  
  
"How did you get in?" he called after her, changing the subject.  
  
Selina whirled around. "I picked the locks. What are you going to do about it? Arrest me?" She extended her arms so he could handcuff her. "Go ahead. Let them change me like they did Joker and Ivy. I may hate them, but I'd rather be one of them than one of you."  
  
Batman walked to her and stared into her lovely eyes. He carefully caressed the side of her face with his gloved hand, and she shuttered under his touch. That actually hurt him; he didn't want her to fear him.  
  
He had never wanted anything like that.  
  
Slowly, he leaned in and kissed her soft lips. She surprisingly did the same in return. Selina wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his body closer to hers.  
  
In between kisses, Batman whispered, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."  
  
His own eyes filled with tears as his lips traveled down her neck and to her throat. He got down on his knees and held her waist in his strong arms. With his face against her stomach, Batman sobbed. He could feel her tense body finally loosen with every sob that shook through him.  
  
"It's all right now," she assured and got to her knees also. "It's okay. I'm here." She sat down on the ground and allowed him to lay is head on her lap.  
  
Holding her thighs and crying, he was like a child again. He knew that what he had done was terrible and knew that he had to fix it somehow.  
  
But there was so much to repair.  
  
So much to change.  
  
And he was afraid.  
  
After a few minutes of holding him, Selina questioned, "When did your heart turn to stone, Bruce? Was it when I left you?"  
  
"It had been long before that. Sometime after Flash was killed."  
  
She nodded and gently ran a hand over his masked face.  
  
"I'll help you, Bruce. I'm sure that Lois will help too. We just need to work together, and maybe call Dick or Barbara? They'd help. You know they would." Selina swallowed hard. "Maybe some of those Lords would agree with want you're doing? I'm sure not all of them will, but there has to be at least one."  
  
"Do you really think we can change this, Selina?"  
  
"Of course. You were righteous at one time."  
  
"Once upon a time," he remarked with disdain hinted in his coarse voice.  
  
"And once upon a time, we were happy. That doesn't mean that we can't be again," she reminded.  
  
Batman sat up and looked at her. Without another word, he pressed his lips to hers, kissing her hungrily. When he finally did stop, he noticed the hope in her gorgeous green eyes and the smile on her loving lips. It had been in her eyes where he realized there was still hope for his dark soul.  
  
"Could you learn to love me again, Selina?" he questioned.  
  
His answer had been a single tear from her eye and a soft kiss on his cold lips.  
  
^^FIN^^ 


End file.
